dsimon writes: Actually thats a good point, but in a close fight like that... i mean he won the rounds doing it. But Cotto's defense has improved me thinks. He got caught through the guard less often and by turnign one of his hands inwards neutralized an uppercut through the guard. But Donny let me ask you this: How would that translate against Margarito? edit: I would be remiss not to say what an effort by Shane!! And what a class act.
There's one thing I must say : Shane is one tough MF, he took some BRUTAL shots to the chin last night and wasn't really hurt, just buzzed a little bit.
Yep he's tough. But make no mistake about it, he was hurt by a few and that's why he was hold excessively and also why he elected to run for a couple rounds (until Cotto inexplicably started to backpeddle). I think Miguel was trying to sucker Shane in, but it almost backfired on him because it made Shane appear to win a couple more rounds than he actually did to his fans....
phonetap refuses to eat crow...especially when no one predicted that fight accurately. who the hell thought cotto would be beating shane to the punch and then shane would be the one stalking cotto the second half of the fight. :dunno: cotto proved to be stronger than phonetap thought and that was the fights most surprising aspect in phonetap's opinion. also, shane didn't have a decisive speed advantage but phonetap will chalk that up to father time. cotto is a strong, young and hungry lion and phonetap will not underestimate him again...
dsimon writes: That point is undeniable and duly noted.... Now eat your crow mr Shane will dominate and suprise!::
I am eating I didn't even make a prediction on the board, but did tell my friend shane would one. I thought cotto was 2 one dimensional to beat mosley,.
I will admit finally that Cotto is a lot better than I thought. I still think his chin is suspect and that he will not retire without a KO loss or two on his record, but the kid can fight and is very tough. I thought the fight was damn close, so many of the rounds were close. I can't believe people are saying it was easy to score it for Cotto. They must have given Cotto every close round and there were quite a few of them. Props to Cotto for a great win.
Its funny how some are saying that a younger shane would have destroyed cotto. But could it be that Shane expirience and wisdom allowed him to do well against Cotto. I think a younger shane was much more reckless and might have gotten hit more often. I dont know for sure, but just putting another spin on the fight.
I find it funny how some credit Cotto for his boxing skills but overlook the backpeddling he did at the end. He wasn't outboxing Shane he was just avoiding him. I was dissapointed on how Cotto finished the fight. This was his first mega fight with an elite fighter and to think he had the fight in the bag I thought was the worst attitude to have for a young fighter like him. He is lucky he is the young star coming up fighting at the garden. He had alot of things going his way aside from how good he is. I guess I just expected him to close the show better. Doesn't mean KO Shane because he wasn't going to. But the backpeddling was a turn off coming from him.opcorn:
I admit that I was fairly impressed by Cotto. He was a lot faster than I expected and showed a lot of counterpunching ability that I haven't seen him do in a while. The last time I saw him use those skills was in the Abdullaev (sp?) fight. He showed a rock solid chin as well. I always knew he could box backing up so I wasn't surprised when he did so at certain points. I picked Shane and thought his reach advantage, speed, and combination punching would be the difference. Shane didn't use his reach as well as he could. Did not throw as many combos as the did in the Collazo fight prior and showed lass head movement. I was impressed by the way Shane came on late and as usual he showed his warrior spirit in closing the show strong. I still contend that Cotto was backing up because he was hurt, not because he thought he had the fight in the bag, As a result he elected to get on his bike. One thing I don't understand is there was a point in either round 7 or 8 when Shane seemed to burt Cotto and had him backing up, and the ref for some reason seemed to seperate them. I'll have to watch the fight again, sot see what the exact reason was.
That was round 10. As Cotto is sliding across the ropes to his left, Mosley drills him with a right hand right on the cheek/chin and Cotto stutter-steps a bit. He backs into the ropes and that's where the ref breaks them up to have a corner wipe the canvas dry (the same spot Mosley slips on in the 12th two rounds later). The reason he did it is because Mosley slips on that spot pretty badly coming in after Cotto. Shane himself points to it. If you count it, it was about a 10-second break. Cotto was buzzed....but he looked in control of his faculties and was actually waiting for Mosley to come in. Bad timing, but I didn't think it materially affected the round, which Mosley still won. Peace.
Shane Mosley once again being toooooo nice pointed to the ref that there was a wet spot on the canvas..and the ref calls time...to clean/dry it up.::::
But he landed hard counters, clean jabs, and was setting traps for Shane....he wasn't running away or simply avoiding shots -- he was circling and then FIGHTING off the ropes. To me, there's a significant difference. Cotto was still fighting and was getting the better of it in many spots despite fighting off the back foot. He did that vs. Abullaev, N'dou, Bazan....has often used it to good advantage. It is not the first time he's elected to box. AND he stood in quite a few spots in those rounds and traded/exchanged. It's being blown WAY out of proportion...probably because few expected it. But if you rewatch it, it's really not that drastic. Truthfully, I don't think he did it because he "had the fight in the bag"....I think Mosley hurt him AND he saw he wasn't going to stop Shane - so he elected to box, and did relatively well. Shane "boxed" in the 7th and 8th and it's considered a good adjustment (as well it should). And this was PBF's entire strategy vs. DLH. I DO share your criticism regarding the 12th round itself, though. That went overboard. Peace.
